The
National Institute for Food and Nutrition Science (NIFNS) was founded
in 1949. The aim of the establishment was to provide better public
health through improved food hygiene and nutrition. The founder and
the first director of the institute was ProfessorRóbert
Tarján,
who initiated and managed the expert and scientific activities for 30
years. From the very beginning the Institute had a three–field
scope of duties:

to conduct research in nutrition science
and food hygiene,

to act as an advisor of healthy
nutrition and dietary treatment at national level, and

to educate experts in nutrition and mass
catering.

Numerous studies and research were
performed under his direction, for instance the biological effects of
xenobiotics, relationship between nutrition of mothers and
composition of their breast milk, relationship between nutritional
and health status of different population groups, etc.Professor
Róbert Tarján was followed by Professor
György Bíró for
the next 15 years, who organized and controlled the First Hungarian
Representative Nutrition Survey involving close to 17 000 people
between 1985 and 1988. On the basis of data gained from this study
the most important diet–related risk factors were identified.

In
the last decades, due to the growing food production, the
introduction of new technologies in food processing, and the
increased amount of chemicals used the number of microbiological and
toxicological examination of foodstuffs has increased. The next
director was Dr.
Tibor Novotny,
an outstanding skilled, well–known expert of food hygiene and food
safety.

Between 1998 and 2005, the director of the Institute was Dr.
Imre Rodler.
During this time, the NIFNS had to accommodate to the new challenges
created by the accession of Hungary to the European Community and put
more effort on food safety.

THE
INSTITUTE TODAY

In
the summer of 2005, Dr. Éva Martos took over the
direction of
the Institute giving a great impulse of spreading of healthy
nutrition in the country Different dietary surveys, healthy nutrition
of children and active
co–operation with international
organizations were
introduced.The institute focuses on public health in
relation to human nutrition, food technology, nutritional environment
and hygiene. It is also responsible for the notification of food
supplements, foods for particular nutritional uses (infant formulae,
complementary foods, gluten free foods, etc.), cosmetics and biocides
used in food industry and mass
catering.

Our activities also include education,
research, scientifically based risk
assessments and advisory
services to Hungarian and international authorities and industries.
The Institute regularly monitors food consumption patterns and
provide analytical services based on accredited and standardised
analysis methods.

Moreover, NIFNS elaborates and updates
dietary guidelines, organizes public health projects and takes part
in the decision making process of food and
nutrition policies
both at national and international levels.

At present, NIFNS works efficiently in
the frame of the national public health network directed by the
Ministry of Health and the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of
State. The Institute has about 60 well–trained employees (medical
doctors, chemists, dieticians, pharmacists, technicians) working in
three
different but complementary departments.

Department of Food Chemistry and
Analysis

Department of Nutritional Epidemiology

Department of Applied Nutrition

The
present and future tasks of the institute are based on the EU and
other international obligations (FAO, WHO, Codex Alimentarius) and
on the
country–specific needs. These tasks include
participation in the work of international organizations, adaptation
of legislation to new EU regulations, as well as improvement of
nutritional health and knowledge of all population groups, especially
focusing on children.

DEPARTMENT
OF FOOD CHEMISTRY AND ANALYSIS

The
department complies with the criteria of MSZ EN ISO/IEC 17025:2001
standard accredited by the Hungarian Accreditation Board.

Participation in the continuous updating
of the food component tables, supervise the proposed input rate and
nutrition recommendation and the expansion of other food database.

Participation in education of health
professionals and specialists in public catering, food industry and
food trade.

Participation in national and
international research developing programs of Hungarian Academy of
Science, Hungarian Scientific Research Found, Department of
Electronics Technology, National Committee for Technological
Development and other organizations, institutes, foundations and
companies.

DEPARTMENT
OF NUTRITIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGY

Scope of activities

Preparation of expert’s opinions and
statements.

Continuous updating of nutritional
recommendations.

Preparation of educational and
informative materials for experts, public and media serving the
purpose of disease prevention and healthy nutrition.

Nutritional-hygienic assessment of food
products (adequate energy and food intake to age and physical
activity).

examination of nutrition and health
status of different groups of the population,

primary
and secondary prevention of nutrition related diseases.

Participating in notification of food
supplements.

Preparing dietary recommendations for
various population groups.

Participation in education of PhD
students and health professionals.

Accomplished national nutritional
epidemiological surveys:

study for children of parents with acute
myocardial infarction,

survey of pregnant women’s nutritional
habit, and women in menopause,

national representative survey of 15-18
year old children,

study for nutrition and lifestyle of
elderly people,

representative survey
of elementary and secondary schoolchildren.

DEPARTMENT
OF APPLIED NUTRITION

Scope of activities

Coordination and evaluation of national
surveys in the field of institutional
feeding. This activity
provides information on dietetic supply in hospitals and of
hospitalised patients’ supply and quality, and adequacy of
patients’ catering.

Dietetic evaluation (qualitative and
quantitative) of various traditional menus and menus for special
nutritional purposes used in catering.

Preparing menus for dietary treatment for
hospitals and other institutions
according to the dietary goals
and to the professional recommendations.

Participating in nutritional evaluation
of food supplements, and in the approval of nutritional and health
claims.

Contribution in completion of food
supplement database.

Preparing dietary recommendations for
various population groups.

Participation in education of health
professionals, specialists in public catering, food industry and food
trade.

Participation in the elaboration and
introduction of programmes and models for prevention of diet–related
diseases.

Nutritional education for children's
communities, schools, kindergartens and other population groups.

Giving dietary advices the Department
contributed to the successful preparation of the Hungarian Water Polo
Team for the Beijing Olympic Games, 2008.

INTERNATIONAL
ACTIVITIES

Considerable part of the staff of NIFNS
is involved in the activities of different international
organizations, working parties and working groups. The Institute
makes effort to maintain its international
relationships with
different organizations and scientific associations e.g. European
Academy of Nutritional Scientists, Federation of European
Nutritional Societies, International Life and Science Institute,
European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical
Research, etc., and to establish co–operation agreements with
other institutes.

International
expert activities: participation in experts groups such as Codex Alimentarius Committee
on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, on Methods for
Analysing and Sampling, on Deep Frozen Foods, WHO European Regional
Nutritional Committee, CEN and EFSA Working Group on Botanicals

NIFNS is involved in many international
programs:

WHO program on Surveillance for Control
of Foodborne Infections and
Intoxications

International Co-operation ENHR II
(European Nutrition and Health
Report II) – the aim of this
work is to give a comparative data set and
information on the
results of national dietary surveys of the participating European
countries

HECTOR Project – the aim of this
program is to check the quality, and
energy/nutrient content of
the foods consumed out of home

HAPPY – Hungarian Aqua Promotion in
the Young (WHO)

EDUCATION

All departments of the Institute have
been participating in gradual and/or post gradual education of health
professionals, mass catering professionals and other specialists in
the field of food industry, food trading and marketing, food analysis
and nutrition.

The staff provides academic and practical
assistance to university and collage graduates in preparation their
diploma thesis as well as to Hungarian and foreign candidates in
preparation of their PhD thesis.

NIFNS
is the Department of Preventive Nutrition at the Faculty of Food
sciences at Corvinus University, Budapest and takes part in the PhD
and public health professional’s education organized by the
Department of Occupational and
Environmental Health at Faculty of
Medicine at the Semmelweis University. The Institute cooperates in
the field of post graduated and PhD education, and
scientific
research with several other universities such as Faculty of
Agriculture and Environment at Szent István University, Gödöllő
and Faculty of Natural Sciences of Eötvös Lóránd University,
Budapest.

Kontraszti
M.: The physiological effect of dietary fibre on human health under
vitro and in vivo conditions: Animal experiments and in vivo studies.
University of Holticulture, Faculty of Food Chemistry, Budapest 1998.

Kovács
V.A. The role of exercise training in the prevention and treatment of
childhood obesity, Semmelweis University, Budapest, 2009.

The
library of the Institute is a scientific library with a recognised
national task in the field of nutrition, dietary treatment, nutrition
physiology, biochemistry, food chemistry, food safety, microbiology
and toxicology. The library contributes to the effectiveness of
scientific research and education provided by the NIFNS. The
present unique collection contains about 5000 volumes of journals and
about 5000 books. At the moment, the most important 19 Hungarian and
14 international journals on the above mentioned topics are taken.
The library is very popular not only in the circle of the scientists
of the Institute, but for several other experts working in other
institutions. There is an excellent co–operation with other
libraries, and thanks to our outstanding librarian the employees of
the Institute can get all the scientific articles they are interested
in.

RESEARCH
ACTIVITIES

Several national research projects have
been focused on the qualitative and/or quantitative investigation and
determination of potentially hazardous and potentially beneficial,
naturally occurring compounds, mainly in food-supplements, foods for
special dietary purposes, and functional foods:

Examination of the human health effects
and the risk assessment of the critical compounds

Developing, setting up and updating
analytical methods for analysis of potentially beneficial compounds

The scientists of the
Institute have been made efforts to update the national database of
nutrients and also phytonutrients in foods and foodstuffs.
Biological effects of health protective compounds in foods have
been
investigated in animal and human experiments.

ONGOING
PROJECTS

The Institute participates in the work of
international organizations, primarily WHO and FAO. It has already
joined many international projects – e.g. the EU programmes ‘COST’–
establishes co–operation agreements with domestic and foreign
institutions and takes part in the work of Codex Alimentarius.

Important task of the institute is to
actively participate in the Public Health Program of the Hungarian
Government for 2010 with following goals:

reducing fat consumption,

reducing saturated fatty acid
consumption,

increasing fresh fruit and vegetable
consumption,

increasing low-fat milk consumption,

introducing
low-salt content food on the market.

Several programs have been organized in
the frame of this nation–wide action and staff of the institute has
been involved not only in the organization of the sub–programs, but
also in the implementation and the evaluation of the
actions.

The prevalence of childhood obesity is
increasing markedly throughout the world. The NIFNS is involved in
numerous international projects dealing with this topic.

Nutritional Friendly School Initiative
(WHO)

Childhood Obesity Surveillance
Initiative (WHO)

IDLE
– Intelligent Diet and Lifestyle in Europe (EU)

InForm
– Campaign against obesity in children and adolescents(EU)

The Institute regularly releases
recommendations in order to draw the public’s attention to
healthier diets and lifestyle.

PUBLICATIONS

There are numerous books or chapters of
books and more than 250 articles of journals have been published in
contribution with one or more researcher of the institute between
2005 and 2009.